LIBRARY OF CONGRESS. 



©Ijap, Sopgrig^fn. 

Shelf.'' 






UNITED STATES OF AMERICA. 



Christian Greatness in the Minister. 



A DISCOURSE 

^BiFEtAjND Character 
ROLLIN HEBER NEALE, D.D. 



FORTY YEARS PASTOR OF THE FIRST BAPTIST CHURCH OF BOSTON ; DELIVERED 
BEFORE THE CHURCH OCTOBER 1 7, l88o, THE FORTY-SECOND 
ANNIVERSARY OF HIS SETTLEMENT, 



BY 

William Hague, D.D. 
h 



TUBLISHED BY REQUEST OF THE CHURCH. 



33fl0ion: 

HOWARD GANNETT. 
1880. 




3X(»4 







DISCOURSE. 



Jobv. 26: "Thou shatt ccme to thy grave in a full age, like as a shock of corn 
cometh in in his season." 

Matt. xx. 26, 27 : " Whosoever will be great among you, let him be your 
minister; and whosoever will be chief among you, let him be your servant." 

The ancient benediction here set before us, celebrating the 
ideal close of a career that has fulfilled its chief aim upon earth, 
has been effectually realized in the experience and the record 
of the Rev. Rollin Heber Neale, D.D., whose memory this 
generation would not willingly let die, whose life and character 
we have met to commemorate. 

A completed mission — a well-rounded life-work in accord- 
ance with the design of the Creator, rich in the fruitage 
of Christian graces garnered up in personal character — is now, 
as of old, the one supreme good that meets the deepest need 
and the highest aspiration of which human nature is capable. 
Hence this song of promise, sung by one of the earliest of 
Oriental poets, sets forth the departure of a faithful man " in 
full age/' as a perfect harmony with the nature and fitness of 



things, imparting to the close of his earthly course a radiance 
of festal beauty like the autumnal welcome of the ripe sheaf to 
its garner. 

Thus, in the retrospective view of the year 1879, the 
tranquil departure of Dr. Neale from the chief field of his life- 
work looms up as an event "in season" — the fitting complete- 
ment of that "patient continuance in well-doing" that had 
signalized him as a wise and trusted steward, whose exit from 
earth was but promotion from the charge over "a few things" 
to the promised "rule over many things" that is set forth by 
Christ as the sharing of his own boundless heritage of joy. 

To some of us, despite the premonitions of preceding 
months, that departure was a surprise. While absent from 
home, on a Western journey, I was cheered by the announce- 
ments of the press that the signs were more favorable, and that 
his restoration to the enjoyment of society was expected. 
How soon afterward came the intelligence that he had gone ! 
Then, at once, as I turned my thoughts homeward, the outlook 
was so sadly changed — like a familiar landscape whence a 
lightning-stroke has smitten away the old majestic elm, or some 
object of life-long interest that had been the attractive feature 
of the surrounding. 

Just so, indeed, in the cherished thought of many, far and 
near, has been Dr. Neale in Boston — "a living presence," 
whose power to awaken tender memories and touch the deeper 



springs of feeling in our spirit-nature has been the growth of 
more than half a century. In the survey of the two hundred 
and fifteen years' history of the church that he last served, he 
stands forth in the foreground of the time-picture a prominent 
figure, in company with his eminent predecessor, Rev. Samuel 
Stillman, D.D. — the only ministers who loom up so grandly as 
severally distinguished by an uninterrupted pastorate of forty 
years' duration. 

That period was of old deemed adequate for the develop- 
ment and trial of character, as Moses affirmed in regard to 
Israel. * Thanks to God that, as we now take this whole 
period of our brother's last pastorate within our view retrospect- 
ively, we are impressed with the significance of its record, 
seeing that the first touching of the child-heart by the divine 
Spirit, the first parental teachings of the Christian home, the 
first aspirations of youth, the first determinations and tentative 
efforts of early manhood, have grown into an effective life- 
work — a completed unity of character bearing the impress of 
that moral greatness which Jesus emphasized when he declared 
true usefulness to be true greatness, saying: "Whosoever will 
be great among you, let him be your minister ; and whosoever 
will be chief among you, let him be your servant." 

In this saying our Lord distinguishes the essential idea of 
Christian ambition as a ruling desire to achieve in his service 



* Deut. viii. 2. 



a high degree of excellence for its own sake. As by the 
necessity of its nature, an active mind tends either to sink 
or soar, He here recognizes, in the truly Christian soul, an 
aspiration that is not only lawful, but laudable — a spontaneous 
play of the inner life, an element of force in personal charac- 
ter. Of Christian ambition as thus defined, Dr. Neale has 
lived, in the presence of his generation, as a true exponent ; 
and now, in bringing him anew before the eye of memory 
as an object of sympathetic interest, surveying his work as a 
unity, let us consider, — 

I. The nature of this christian ambition as a motive- 
power. 
II. Its working in his life. 
III. Its exemplification in character. 

Evidently, in this connection, the Christly ambition 
whereof we have spoken, regarded as a principle of action, 
is worthy of a few moments' notice. 

In the little band of disciples that Jesus drew around Him 
in his earthly ministry, there was, it seems, an aspiration after 
relative greatness ; an ambition to undertake, to do, or suffer, 
great things in order to realize a high standard of ideal excel- 
lence. The teaching of our Master here before us does not 
condemn this aim, but sets forth its true object of pursuit and 
the true method of its realization. Certainly, the gifted mind 



7 

that lacks the aspiration to rise higher, will gravitate to the 
depths earthward ; hence ambition, the desire of something 
better and greater than any present attainment, is a moral 
necessity. 

Why, then, it may be asked, is the word "ambition" so 
commonly used in a sense that implies a censure, something 
that one is loth to own ? Such is the fact ; it has a meaning. 
If you say, unqualifiedly, of a Christian minister that he is an 
ambitious man, you incur a degree of liability to being made 
responsible for the affirmation that he is worldly, self-seeking, 
covetous of honor or power. So, too, if you apply the term in 
characterizing a statesman, you seem to cast a shadow of 
suspicion over his patriotism, and would, probably, call forth 
from some one the reminder, " By that sin fell the angels." 

And yet, the word "ambition" is well defined by all the 
recognized authorities of the past, as the "desire of anything 
great or excellent," or of "something greater than is pos- 
sessed." The term is of Latin origin, derived from the word 
" ambio," which means simply to go about ; that verb is inno- 
cent enough, but the noun derived from it took a taint from its 
incidentally frequent application to those who " went about," 
as candidates, to seek honor or preferment for themselves. 
And so the word "ambition" comes down to us from the past 
bearing witness that the predominant aspirations of our race 
have been worldly and selfish. The plain, inoffensive old word, 



with life in its heart, has been subjugated to this use, forced, 
by the course of events, to bear testimony that the human soul, 
capable originally of rising Godward, just as "fire, ascending, 
seeks the sun," has been perverted by selfishness, and held 
fast in the bondage of low desires. 

Christianity, ruling in the heart as a new life from God, 
does not quench ambition, but purifies it, elevates it, and 
imparts to it a right direction. Paul recognizes it as an uplift- 
ing power when he says (2 Cor. v. 9, as it has been truly 
rendered) : " We make it our point of honor to be approved 
of Christ;" just as any loyal soldier might say, I make it my 
point of honor to win the approval of my commander, and be 
qualified for promotion to a higher range of services. 

This teaching of the apostle is in harmony with the 
spirit of the great Teacher, as expressed in the words quoted 
from his conversation with his disciples. He recognized 
ambition as a living force, an incentive to action ; but seeing 
it perverted to mere self-seeking, he showed that there was 
no real greatness in that, and that he would concentrate it 
upon an aim truly worthy, identical with his own ; to be 
realized in uplifting others, not in putting them down — in 
serving them, not in " lording it over" them, even in the joy 
of a self-sacrificing love; for "the Son of man came not to 
be ministered unto, but to minister, and to give his life a 
ransom for many." 



What though this teaching was opposed to the bent of 
their natural inclination and the popular doctrine of the world ? 
That popular doctrine Jesus pronounced heathenish, as being 
in direct antagonism to the spirit and life of his kingdom. 
"Ye know that the princes of the Gentiles exercise dominion 
over them, and they that are great exercise authority upon 
them. But it shall not be so among you : but whosoever will 
be great among you, let him be your minister ; and he that 
will be chief, let him be your servant." 

This idea, far above their range of thought at first, those 
men realized in life and action. To be sure, it went against the 
grain of their educated prejudices ; their old nature would 
sometimes assert itself; but the Truth conquered. Their whole 
character was transformed, at last, so that they have left us the 
doctrine not only as uttered by Christ, but as translated by 
them into action, an example for all time. 

The same great lesson, we may safely say, ruled the mind 
and heart of Dr. Neale, and was by him translated practically 
into common life. Regarded objectively, as an idea, the formu- 
lated doctrine — true usefulness is true greatness — modified his 
course of thinking as a guiding light. Regarded subjectively, 
as a sentiment, it lived within him as a secret of power. He 
aspired to win the benediction of the needy; to rise by serving; 
that was his ambition. In this direction he would fain excel. 
He entered the Messiah's kingdom under the sway of this 



IO 

inspiration, and exemplified its uplifting spirit throughout his 
life-course. 

II. Let us trace the working of this principle in personal 
history. 

BIRTHPLACE AND CHILD-HOME. 

Years ago, Dr. Neale, recalling a recent visit to his child- 
home, said : " I was born in old Connecticut, and I am not 
ashamed of it. To my eye there are no sunnier scenes on 
earth than are to be found in a certain inland town called 
Southington, midway between Hartford and New Haven." 
This feeling of the attractions of his birth-place others have 
shared ; the beauty of the surroundings, the picturesqueness 
of the scenery, have been noted in the topographical surveys 
of the State. Here, in the old farm-house, the comfortable 
family-home of Jeremiah and Anna Fuller Neale, "about fifteen 
minutes' walk" from the center of the village, was born, Sept. 
15, 1808, the youngest of a family of ten children, and, in due 
time, named Rollin Heber. The parents were one in spirit 
and purpose, as well as in the bonds of the marriage covenant ; 
hence their home-life was a gentle training of their children 
into harmony with their ideas as expressed by their union 
with the Baptist Church of Southington. That church, gath- 
ered in 1730, was known at first as the Baptist Church of 
Farmington, until a division of the old town's territory 



originated the name of South Farmington ; and that having 
been abridged into Southington, the church appears in the 
records of 1816, for the first time, with its name as at present. 
After the lapse of two-thirds of a century, during the period 
of Rollin's youth, it suffered a sad experience of decline, by 
means of exceptional difficulties, the lack of pastoral care, as 
well as of bereavements by death. At that time, in an impor- 
tant sense, the home of young Rollin became the life-center 
of the church itself. As the personality of the mother is ever 
felt as the chief factor in making the home of the child, we 
have reason to say that this boy Rollin, from very infancy, 
inhaled a home-atmosphere that ministered at once to the 
health and growth of his whole nature, so as to make home- 
memories a cheer and a charm even to the last week of his 
earthly existence. 

CHILD-FAITH AND FIRST LOVES. 

Among these memories, so familiar to his friends, were 
some that dated as far back as his fifth year ; one especially, 
that we recall, bringing to view two faithful ministers of old 
Connecticut, Daniel Wildman and Samuel Miller, often guests 
of the Neales, accustomed to visit Southington on the same 
errand; namely, "to strengthen the things then remaining," 
at a time when there were only four male members of the 



church besides Mr. Neale, himself. He, burdened with a 
weight of care, with an anxious look, one day, put to 
Mr. Wildman the question, " What will become of our church 
when you and Brother Miller pass away?" Mr. Wildman 
answered : " God will take care of that. Who knows but that 
boy may become a preacher, yet?" The saying sounded like 
an oracle ; the child heard it, and laid it up in his heart. 

Two years afterward, at seven years of age, while in the 
prayer-closet with his mother, there seems to have been "a" 
time of visitation, in answer to the mother's prayer, and the boy 
never forgot his conscious act of self-surrender to Christ, as that 
of a sinner to the personal Saviour, recognizing thus a new rela- 
tion begun by his own heart-choice. It was a child's faith ; 
nevertheless, it was a living power within, showing itself out- 
wardly in cherished tastes, in habitudes of thought and feeling 
that indicated an inner quickening and a transformation of 
character. The Bible was his companion, and the committing 
of Scriptures to memory was taken to, not as task-work, but as 
recreation ; just as if he felt and meant to exemplify the old 
saying, "A change of work is as good as a rest." The play of 
his faculty in this direction was extraordinary, and the recitation 
of seven chapters to his mother was not uncommon as a week's 
allotment.* This specialty of choice attracted attention, and 

*The Rev. D. N. Beach, of Wakefield, has kindly furnished the following extract of a letter 
written in July, 1875, by Dr. Nelson Walker, to one of his sisters in Southington, a reminiscence 



called forth from friends the saying, "That boy was born for a 
preacher." At the same time, it is worthy of note, the boys of 
the neighborhood, children of his own age, and considerably 
older, also, felt the attraction of the cheerful, buoyant spirit 
with which he was gifted ; so that, despite his studiousness, 
he was, for years following, as really a favorite with the young 
around him as if they had known him mainly as the con- 
stant companion of their sports, first and foremost upon the 
play-ground. 

CHARACTER DEVELOPED BY SORROW. 

With such a marked individuality of taste and temperament 
as we have now noted, shaping his course, Rollin made quiet 
and regular advancement in his school-studies for the eight 
successive years, urged forward by a growing desire to appro- 
priate all the educational advantages with which his town was 

of 1820: "After Raikes, in England, invented Sunday-schools, it was considered expedient that one 
should be established in Southington. At that time I was a little bashful boy ; my mother took me to 
the meeting-house, and led me in, and I was put in a class with several other boys. I was badly 
scared, and, I believe, cried some. We were given a lesson to learn (about ten verses), and then we 
could learn as many extra verses in the Psalms as we chose. We got credit for extras. Josephus 
Hitchcock was our teacher. He would hear our lessons and extra verses, but soon found there was 
one boy there who, if he happened to commence with him, would repeat extra verses until time to let 
out, and none of the rest of us had any chance. So Mr. Hitchcock heard all but him, and let him fill 
out the rest of the time. I recollect that at one of the reports, he was credited with over eight 
liundred extra verses. This boy was Rollin H. Neale, since a Baptist minister." 



14 

favored. Then, at fifteen years of age, the critical point of 
his youthful history was signalized, Dec. 9, 1823, by the death 
of his mother. She had ever been his companion, as well 
as his counsellor, and no words can fitly describe this first 
experience of real privation and loneliness. 

Through that event, however, the divine voice appealed 
to his spiritual nature more effectively than ever, and called 
into action sentiments that had been passively received long 
before, and had lain comparatively dormant. Left in doubt, 
indeed, as to the genuineness of his early conversion, on 
account of the lack of demonstrativeness or of recognition, he 
was, on a well-remembered day, in the presence of Irenaeus 
Atkins (then a deacon, afterward a pastor, led into the ministry 
by the inquirer whom he was now leading into the kingdom), 
expressing, in bitterness of grief, the wish that he had as 
much assurance of love to God as he had of love to his 
mother. From this revelation of his inner life, as a starting- 
point, his struggling spirit was gently and wisely led until he 
could say, with all the energy of his nature, " I know whom 
I have believed, and am persuaded that He is able to keep 
that which I have committed unto him." The transition from 
gloom to sunshine, from the weakness of doubt to conscious 
strength, was quick and clear. The New Testament was in 
his hand as the Lamp of God lighting his way ; his feet, as 
he said, were "upon the Rock," and a new song in his heart. 



i-5 

The bereaved boy, sorrowing because he had felt himself 
both motherless and godless, was now thrilled with a con- 
scious love that glowed as a fire in his bones — a heroic 
enthusiasm that could not but speak. 

MORAL HEROISM IN OPEN SELF-DEDICATION. 

The mental struggle having issued in triumph, he needed 
no urging from any one to incite him to do what he regarded 
as a duty, or as obedience to a plain command ; and then the 
question of the hour was, "What doth hinder me to be bap- 
tized?" Just at this point of initial action there comes before 
us a manifestation of character that seemed as surprising to 
those who witnessed it, as it seems extraordinary to us in the 
review of it. As we have seen, the "home church" was 
weak, pastorless, at its lowest point of depression. Having 
been accepted as a candidate for baptism by the church at 
Bristol, the adjoining town, it was naturally expected that he 
would receive his baptism from the pastor, Rev. Isaac Merriam, 
at that place. But then, at Rollin's request, arrangements 
were made by the Bristol pastor to baptize him at Southington, 
in a stream flowing through a meadow, conveniently near the 
village, that he might bear testimony for Christ in the presence 
of his friends, his school-mates and daily companions. The 
hour was appointed, notice given, and an assembly gathered, 



i6 

chiefly of the young. Those school-mates had been accus- 
tomed, in their social meetings, debates, or literary exercises, 
to honor him as a leader, and were often finding occasions to 
call him forth in declamation or extemporaneous speech. But 
now a new occasion had arisen ; they were gathered around 
one whom they loved to listen to, and an address interpreting 
the action and making it vocal with appeal, was a matter of 
course. It was a marvelous sight, that youthful assembly 
gathered near a boy of sixteen speaking to them from the 
water by an act symbolizing the first truths of Christianity, 
and then preaching to them his first sermon from the water's 
edge. 

Thus young Neale openly entered the kingdom of Christ; 
and as now, from our point of view, after the lapse of more 
than half a century, we look back upon that scene, his style 
of action appears sublime, his spirit heroic, his new ambition 
prophetic, and his aspiration to serve and save others a divine 
impulse, giving tone to a character that was then and there 
unconsciously inaugurating the work of a life-time. The effect 
invested it with an historical dignity, followed as it was by a 
revival of religion that renewed the youth of the old church, 
and brought young Rollin's spiritual guide, Deacon Irenaeus 
Atkins, into the pastorate wherein he has "won a good 
degree," and an honored name that is "better than great 
riches." In view of the greatness of issues from weak 



i7 

beginnings, baffling human calculations, the case seems with- 
out parallel in the annals of our time in New England. 



EDUCATIONAL HELPS. 

The main question as to the object of a life-pursuit having 
been settled in an unexpected manner, the chief matter of 
deliberation now related to the means of obtaining the kind 
of education suited to his needs. During the five years' in- 
terval between seven and thirteen years of age, the influences 
of common-school teaching and home education had been 
happily combined. Here his course was arrested ; how could 
he advance another step ? Fortunately for Rollin there was 
at Southington an academy, originated and sustained by pri- 
vate enterprise, under the care of trustees — the kind of insti- 
tution that, taking rank between the public school and the 
college, is exactly adapted to meet the needs of an aspiring 
youth, and help him to extend his studies beyond the range 
of the common school toward those of the college curriculum. 
At the same time the Rev. David L. Ogden, pastor of the 
Congregational Church, the leading religious organization of 
the town, had been taking a kindly interest in him, so that 
arrangements for a course of instruction had already been 
talked over before the day of the baptism. After that occurrence 



Mr. Ogden remonstrated with him for his audacity in arranging 
for the administration of his baptism so far from the vicinity 
of the Bristol church, which he had joined, and in the presence 
of his young people, who had been attracted by the ordinance 
to listen to his address. Rollin vindicated himself, affirming his 
loyalty to Christ, who had commanded " confession before 
men," and had warned all of the danger of "being ashamed" 
of him, avowing an abhorrence of all cowardice, and his 
interest in the spiritual welfare of his companions. Afterward, 
on reflection, it seemed to him that some particular expressions 
that he had uttered were objectionable ; immediately he sought 
an opportunity to offer an apology to Mr. Ogden for a degree 
of undue excitement. The heart of the good man was touched 
by this manifestation of character, and he quickly responded, 
•"Well, well, I was more to blame than you." From that 
moment they sustained to each other the relation of a true 
and life-long friendship. Mr. Ogden was not only faithful to 
him as a teacher, but tenderly sympathetic, caring for his 
welfare as for that of a younger brother. He was a large- 
souled man, a scholar and a writer, of whom Rev. Dr. Upson 
said, in a public address : " His course of sermons on the subject 
of ' Baptism ' might well be republished. The volume is a 
clear, condensed, most effective discussion of a controverted 
topic." He was the leader of the community in educational 
as well as in religious interests ; a successful preacher of the 



19 

gospel ; and in labors of love, here specially mentioned, the 
benefactor of us all. 



AN UNEXPECTED START FOR COLLEGE. 

Not far from this time, in 1825, when Rollin, thus earn- 
estly studious, at seventeen years of age, had become hopeful 
of his future, the question of "ways and means" in regard to a 
collegiate education came up in the family, fairly and squarely, 
calling for immediate decision. Rollin broached the subject, 
one night, in a talk with his father, whose wisdom and ability 
he thought would be equal to the occasion. His disappoint- 
ment was bitter when assured by his father that he had no 
resources at command, and could not help him even to "take 
a good start," in the faith of finding the needed means. He 
retired to his chamber. He wept. His tears were effective ; 
aid came unexpectedly. His older brother and companion, 
Jeremiah, was moved by sympathy, and inspired to act. He 
told Rollin at once that he had in store one hundred dollars ; 
namely, eighty dollars, and a silver watch worth twenty — that 
he might have it all, start for Columbia College, Washington, 
and see what he could do. The offer was accepted ; the 
journey to Washington, partly pedestrian, and a year's study 
in the preparatory department, were fully achieved, with a 
degree of success as to self-support that gave him a new idea 
of his "possibilities." 



20 



ANOTHER TRANSITION FROM GLOOM TO SUNSHINE. 

At the close of that collegiate year, however, Rollin 
returned to Southington without any clearly denned plan 
as to his course for the year following. The college itself had 
reached a sharp crisis of its financial history, struggling under 
the pressure of debt. Still, faith prevailed. He would wait 
and watch. He did not wait long. In a letter addressed to 
a friend, there came a message from Rev. Luther Rice, in 
these words: "Tell the young man to come to Columbia 
College, Washington City, and I reckon we shall be able to 
put him through." Thus encouraged he found his way to the 
Capital ; and, ere long, having entered the Freshman class, 
his aim well defined, his path now clear, the fight with poverty 
did not daunt him. 



WASHINGTON AS A PLACE FOR UNIVERSITY EDUCATION. 

To a young student whose heart is set upon a main end 
of action, calling forth into free play the best that is in him 
day by day, Washington offers, of itself, many of the advan- 
tages of a great university. With its various lectureships, 
professional and popular, its Smithsonian Institute, Congres- 
sional Library, and the occasional discussions within the Capitol 
of questions that infold the fortunes of the nation for all time, 



21 

it is to-day, in an important sense, not merely a political and 
social, but also a scientific and literary center. There is no 
better place upon the continent for one, capable of self-im- 
provement, to combine the advantages of studying at once 
books and men. And, surely, of representative men, the 
United States never had a grander array in the national Capitol 
than at the time of our young student's entrance there, in the 
year 1825, when Webster, Clay and Calhoun led the Senate. 
Of all those intellectually stimulating influences Rollin H. 
Neale was susceptible ; for more than half a century he enjoyed 
the memory of the celebrated debate between Webster and 
Hayne, more effectively aided as a popular speaker by observ- 
ing those great examples than he could have been by any 
amount of artistic teaching. 

THE COLLEGE FACULTY CHARACTERIZED. 

At the same time the Faculty of the college was composed 
of men who were capable of exerting a potent sway within their 
own proper sphere, and of holding the students to the par- 
ticular studies prescribed by the college. Rev. William 
Staughton, D.D., who, in his early years, was eminent as a 
classical teacher, and afterward more eminent in the pulpit 
as ''The Prince of Orators," was president; Irah Chase, D.D., 
afterward senior professor at Newton Theological Seminary, 



distinguished as an cxegete (interpreter) of the Hebrew and 
Greek Scriptures ; William Ruggles, LL.D., who was steadily 
at his post, with his heart in his work, more than fifty years ; 
Alexis Caswell, D.D., late president of Brown University, 
professors. The scholars, James D. Knowles, biographer of 
Roger Williams and Mrs. Ann Hasseltine Judson, and the 
first editor of the Christian Review, the gifted and cultured 
Henry K. Green, together with Thomas I. Conant, — now 
a name of world-wide authority in Hebrew and Greek criticism, 
— were tutors. Against the union of forces put forth by such 
an array of effective educators, the temptations of the Capital 
in the direction of mental dissipation could not prevail. There 
was ever a product of good scholarship and of "sound learn- 
ing" under their care. Hence while our young student, fresh 
from the rural districts, was keenly alive to the stimulations 
of his new surroundings, and while his popular gifts opened to 
him new fields of Sabbath work whereby he could earn a part 
of his own support, the intellectual and moral influence of such 
a faculty proved itself an adequate regulator of his mental 
energies, and a sufficient safeguard against their being scattered 
and wasted. 

BEGINNING OF A LIFE-LONG ACQUAINTANCESHIP. 

It was while Rollin was pursuing his second journey to 
Washington, just now referred to, in the autumn of 1826, 



23 

joyous in health and hope, that he lingered a day or two in 
the city of New York, and on a Tuesday evening sought for 
the regular vestry lecture of the Oliver Street Church, then 
under the pastoral care of Rev. Dr. Spencer H. Cone. There 
I saw him for the first time as I rose to deliver from the desk 
what was called a "trial sermon ; " the question as to a formal 
recognition of my call to the ministry having already been 
propounded- to the church, by the pastor, soon after my grad- 
uation at Hamilton College, Clinton, N. Y., whence I was 
to proceed as a candidate for entrance to the Theological 
Seminary at Princeton, N. J. The young stranger was in 
company with one of the deacons, and sat, near the desk, 
directly before me. At once, of course, his fine physique 
arrested my attention, and I have never forgotten that his 
genial nature and sympathetic interest, shining forth from his 
countenance and manner, became to me a real support, so that 
his presence was, of itself, an inspiration. There is such a 
thing as an art of hearing, as well as of speaking, and every 
speaker knows that a good hearer is an acquisition. At the 
close of the service I was made acquainted with him. As he 
stood there, so tall and stately, I looked up to him with the 
feeling that he was my senior. What was my surprise to 
learn that he was forty days my junior ! Upon that hallowed 
spot began a relation of friendship never interrupted even 
unto the latest moment of his existence upon earth. 



24 



ACHIEVEMENTS OF STUDENT LIFE. 

During the succeeding years of college life, young Neale's 
difficulties became, in the long run, effective helpers, calling 
into full play his faculties of brain and limb, developing 
all his resources of strength, — alternating at times from the 
digging of word-roots to the piling of board for the lumber 
trade, — so that in the year 1830 he graduated with the first 
honor in a class whose recorded names show no lack of the 
best rivalry. In the autumn of 1830 he entered Newton 
Theological Seminary ; and as it happened that I had been 
called away from the recently accepted professorship of Greek 
in Georgetown College, Kentucky, to minister to the First 
Baptist Church of Boston, near the close of that year we met 
again, after a four years' interval, on the evening of Feb. 3, 
1 83 1, at my installation service. He was then twenty-two 
years of age, already happily related, as a preacher, to the 
young Baptist church at South Boston, "paying his way/' 
as he had done by his Sunday services at the Navy-Yard 
Church in Washington, where his ministry was associated with 
reminiscences that cheered his whole life-time ; particularly 
the baptism of a noble young man, a kindred spirit, whom the 
churches of Massachusetts long ago learned to recognize and 
honor as Rev. Samuel B. Swaim, D.D. ; and also that of 
Leonard A. Grimes, who rose from the condition of a slave, 



25 

to that of a recognized leader, teacher and preacher, and stood 
forth, while pastor of the Twelfth Baptist Church in Boston, 
the trusted guide of his own people, the wise and bold co- 
worker with the representative men of the nation in the days 
of its peril, the devoted friend of Dr. Neale, until death parted 
them for a season. 

STUDENT AND PREACHER NEWTON AND SOUTH BOSTON. 

Thus from the day our young student left Southington for 
Washington, in order to seek an education for the ministry, 
to the day of his graduation at Newton, in 1833, the review 
of his life called forth thanksgivings that he had been following, 
step by step, the beck of Providence, and had seen all dreaded 
obstacles giving way before him, the "crooked things made 
straight, the rough places plain." His informal connection 
with the church at South Boston seemed to the people there 
to have almost grown of itself into a pastorate, or an old- 
fashioned life-settlement. He had won the faith and love of 
old and young alike ; and so, at the ending of his course at 
Newton, their habit of speaking appeared to recognize a 
pastorate of three years' standing. His installation occurred 
Sept. 15, 1833. Of those who officiated on that occasion, 
I alone am left. It fell to my lot to offer the Introductory 
Prayer ; the Sermon was delivered by Rev. James D. Knowles ; 



26 

the Prayer of Installation was offered by Rev. Dr. Howard 
Malcom ; the Hand of Fellowship by Rev. Dr. Baron Stowe; 
and the Address to the Church by Rev. Dr. Sharp. The 
Hymn for the occasion was composed by Rev. Samuel Francis 
Smith, since known and honored as the author of our " Na- 
tional Hymn," who, indeed, we are glad to say, still lives on 
earth, significantly distinguished as the " Poet Laureate " of 
the people. 

MARRIAGE AND HOME-LIFE. 

A momentous step in the life of a young pastor is the 
establishment of a home; and to that " coming event," as 
now in order, all eyes were turned. In that direction, too, he 
felt assured that he was divinely led, the old proverb of the 
Hebrews' palmy days, "A good wife is from the Lord," seem- 
ing verified in his experience. Was there ever an adaptation 
to the highest aims and the minutest needs of life more 
perfect? Miss Melissa Yale, daughter of William Yale, Esq., 
of Meriden, Connecticut, four years younger than himself, had 
received at New Haven, under the care of Rev. Dr. Crosswell, 
and at Bradford, Mass., under the teaching of Miss Hasseltine 
(sister of Mrs. Ann H. Judson), as complete an education as 
New England institutions could supply. Gifted by nature with 
a love of knowledge, and social qualities that would have ren- 
dered her a power in any community, she avowed herself a 



27 

disciple of Christ in early youth, and was baptized by Rev. 
William Bentley (widely known throughout Connecticut as 
"Father Bentley"), at eighteen years of age. United in 
marriage to Mr. Neale, Sept. 26, 1833, her home-life of 
twenty-one years' duration, we may truly say, is, even now, to 
many living witnesses, a treasured memory. Her efficiency 
in the mission circles, in children's circles, as well as in other 
gatherings of old and young, was extraordinary ; and the 
munificent hospitality whereof her home was the center, 
realized one's best conception of the degree to which social 
power may be made a gospel to win hearts, educate the 
affections, and realize "the days of heaven upon the earth." 
Her husband's keen feeling of this has sometimes put itself 
forth in words that reminded us of Cowper's picture of a 
scene of home-life, where the family group, the glowing urn 
and steaming "cup of tea" figure in the foreground, sug- 
gesting pleasures and ethereal influences that can be imagined 
better than expressed. 



BRIEF MINISTRY AT NEW HAVEN. 

Pleasant as were the relations of Mr. Neale to the church 
of South Boston, the love he cherished for his native State 
opened his heart to the call from New Haven, sent by the 
Baptist Church, then comparatively weak, but bravely strug- 



28 

gling to hold its own, and gain more. It was an appeal to his 
public spirit and his denominational sympathies. He accepted. 
His ministry, glowing with youthful life, was immediately effec- 
tive, and one of its memorable issues was the leading of Phineas 
Stowe forth from the church into the ministry, and at last 
into that Bethel-work in Boston which has made his name 
conspicuous in the annals of Christian philanthropy. Never- 
theless, Mr. Neale's ministry in " dear old Connecticut " was 
not destined, as he had dreamed at first, to be life-long. The 
special combination of forces in his nature that marked out his 
individuality, the Head of the Church had use for elsewhere; 
and ere long that "historic sense" that always asserted itself, 
that quick discernment of the meaning of the past, and just 
appreciation of all that was noteworthy in the characters of 
those that have lived before us, were to find scope by his being 
transferred from the care of a young church to the charge 
of the oldest of our order in the metropolis of New England. 

CALL TO BOSTON. 

As it fell to my lot to have a share in the proceedings 
connected with this issue, a brief reference to the sequence 
of events may be fitting, here. 

Early in the year 1837, Rev. Dr. Wayland, formerly pas- 
tor of the First Church, then President of Brown University, 



29 

visited me, bearing a call to the pastorate of the First Baptist 
Church of Providence, R. I. This call, after appreciative 
consideration, was declined. Three months passed away ; the 
president then came with another call, and said, after stating 
his reasons, "You must take it," speaking with a voice that 
we younger ministers recognized as a voice of authority, 
while we all looked up to him so deferentially. Thus the 
transfer was made, on my part, from the First Church in 
Boston to the First in Providence, under a sense of obligation 
to obey what appeared to be a divine overruling ; and so, 
after various friendly conferences, it was my heart's desire 
that Rollin H. Neale might be called to the vacated pulpit. 
That hope was realized speedily, and it was my joy to greet 
him as pastor, and to preach the sermon pertaining to his 
inauguration, Sept. 27, 1837, from the Epistle of Paul to the 
Philippians (i. 12): "But I would ye should understand, 
brethren, that the things which happened unto me have 
fallen out rather unto the furtherance of the gospel." 

A few days after my return to my new field, a letter 
came to hand from my successor in Boston, full of pleasant 
reminiscences, and urging me to make myself at home, as 
much as possible, in friendly visitations to the "dear old 
church," assured that my doing so would be of mutual benefit. 
Fitly was it said by one who read that communication, "Be- 
hold an Israelite indeed, in whom is no guile." 



3Q 



"the situation" in 1837. 

Dr. Neale was then in the prime of his power. He was 
not a stranger to the field upon which he had entered. Never 
was a man more happy in the appreciation of his surroundings, 
in his keen sense of their adaptedness to bring out the best 
that was in him ; to furnish scope, indeed, for his immediate 
aims and highest aspirations. It was an era of union, of 
denominational peace and progress, of revivals of religion, 
of missionary concerts and spiritual ingatherings. The old 
vestry of the First Church was a true Bethel ; not merely in 
the etymological sense of that word, " House of God," but 
in its more modern sense, a rallying-point for the sons of 
Zebulon, as " Father Taylor" used to denote the men of the 
sea ; for, as then the time of Phineas Stowe was not yet, 
as there was no organism of the type he came to set up, 
many of the class he represented, from the shores of Cape 
Cod and along the New England coast, would somehow drift 
toward that corner, and find themselves at home in the prayer- 
place of the old First Church, where men of business from 
the wharf-stores and the ship-yards would make the walls 
familiar with prayers for the sailors. Hence the life-long sym- 
pathy of Dr. Neale with the Bethel work, his unflagging 
cooperation with Mr. Stowe, and with his effective successor, 
Mr. Cooke, may be traced to the divinely ordered combination 



3i 

of circumstances that nourished these elements of his life- 
power and this fruitage of his work. Among the memorials 
of Dr. Neale, let it be written that through the agency of 
two men, to whose spiritual needs he ministered, and whom 
he drew to Boston as fellow-workers in the common cause, he 
sent forth saving influences that encircled the earth; namely, 
Leonard A. Grimes, a leader of his race, who, trusted by all 
the races, had power with God and man ; and Phineas Stowe, 
whose power as a winner of souls is yet realized in the 
ports of every continent and "afar off upon the sea." 

REUNION AS CO-WORKERS. 

After three years of Dr. Neale's ministry in Boston had 
passed away, while the First Church was enjoying a high 
degree of prosperity, the aggressions of trade were driving 
the family life away from the neighborhood of the Federal 
Street Church, rendering the location valueless as an ecclesi- 
astical position, and a change of place necessary as the condi- 
tion of a future career. A new church-edifice seemed a 
prime necessity. The working out of this denned aim having 
been proposed to me, I accepted it as an enterprize adapted 
to concentrate upon a worthy end elements of moral force 
that might otherwise be wasted. Thus, entering upon the 
pastoral care of that church, in 1840, Dr. Neale and myself 



32 

were brought into the pleasant relation of neighbors and 
co-workers for a decade of years following. That very year 
the new church-edifice, in Bowdoin Square, was opened 
auspiciously ; and then, ere long, under the ministry of Rev. 
Robert W. Cushman, D.D., was felt as the source of a new 
power acting upon the religious life of West End. 

A NEW ERA OF THEOLOGICAL DISCUSSION. 

That year signalized, indeed, an era of intellectual 
awakening in the direction of theology. Never, within the 
experience of the passing generation, had there been a popular 
interest so intense and extensive in the discussion of religious 
questions. Theodore Parker, comparatively a young man, 
minister of a Unitarian church in Roxbury, was drawing 
crowds within the city to listen to his denials of the old 
theological positions of the Unitarians, such as had been 
maintained by Dr. Channing, as to miracle and the super- 
natural element in Christianity. At the same time a fresh 
spirit of revivalism, taking a tone of extraordinary earnestness 
from the distinctive ministrations of Rev. Jacob Knapp, was 
actually agitating great masses of people, so that Dr. Channing 
was led to reconnoiter the movement by personally listening 
to him, and said to some of his excited opponents : "That man 
is doing good ; let him alone ! " Dr. Kirk, too, was then 



33 

preaching in Boston, as an evangelist, preparing the way for 
his settled ministry, appreciated and welcomed by evangelical 
Christians as a gifted orator and teacher, meeting the needs 
of the new class of inquiring minds, and having a special 
mission to fulfill. 

An intensified spirit of independent thought was abroad ; 
to a greater extent than ever the discussion of doctrines was 
free and earnest, comparatively without rancor or the rasping 
of sectarian conflict. For several years the issues were clearly 
marked : on the one hand the elements of free thought, so 
called, were unified and formulated by Theodore Parker, as 
their recognized exponent ; while, on the other hand, there 
was the impartation of a fresh vitality to evangelical religion, 
the revival of personal faith, and large accessions to the 
membership of the whole body of evangelical churches. 



CONCERT OF ACTION IN CHRISTIAN WORK. 

During this period Dr. Neale was busily employed in 
meeting the immediate demands of his own home-field, or at 
times acting, in concert with Dr. Kirk, in special movements 
to extend the kingdom of Christ into the homes and hearts 
of the people. These two men were congenial spirits ; travel- 
ing companions in the Old World, fellow-workers in the New ; 



34 

constituted very differently, indeed, yet mutually supplement- 
ing deficiencies and working in unity. 

The spirit of religious inquiry thus extraordinarily 
awakened continued for successive years to give tone to 
doctrinal discussion, public or private, and to reveal its 
subtle forces demonstratively in accessions to the churches 
that were practically united in the promotion of revivals of 
religion. The effect was twofold : I, The free development 
of latent disbelief into logical, antithetical issues. 2, A quick- 
ening into new life of those diffused sentiments of evangelical 
religion that had seemed too weak for self-assertion. At this 
period Dr. Neale's field of action was more widely extended 
than ever before ; and to its various phases of character 
his distinguishing qualities of mind and heart, of habit and 
manners, seemed a specialty of adaptation. He was at his 
best. 

HIS SPHERE WIDENED ABROAD. 

In tracing out any notable life-course, it is instructive to 
observe how strangely new or unexpected occasions arise to 
bring out what there may be in a man of adaptation to special 
services or exceptional needs, so that they appear to have been 
prearranged as a means to an end. Then we are apt to say, 
"The man was born for that time ; " or, " His opportunity was 
waiting for him." A like thought suggests itself in connection 



35 

with Dr. Neale's European tour, in 1843, when he was led 
"so providentially" to visit the persecuted Baptists then rising 
in Stuttgart, in the kingdom of Wurtemburg, and in Copen- 
hagen. At the latter place he was sadly disappointed by 
learning that Rev. Mr. Oucken, of Hamburg, and Dr. Hoby, 
of Birmingham, Eng., whom he expected to meet there, had 
been summoned before the police as soon as they had 
arrived; that Mr. Oucken, already proscribed, had been sent 
back to Hamburg; and that Dr. Hoby, having been for- 
bidden to remain except on condition that he would neither 
preach nor baptize, nor say anything to any person on the 
subject of religion which should have any tendency, either 
directly or indirectly, to make converts to the Baptist faith, 
had returned with his companion. Dr. Neale says, in his let- 
ter stating the case: "It now came to my turn to appear 
before the police. I met with scarcely less favor. The police 
detained me until nine o'clock, Saturday night, questioning 
me about my faith, and the design of my present visit. I 
told them that I was a Baptist minister from Boston, United 
States of America. 'Well, my good sir,' said the head-man 
of the police, 'what has brought you to Copenhagen?' 'Why, 
sir, I have come to comfort my brethren in Israel : no harm 
in that, I hope.' He shrugged his shoulders, and said, 'You 
can't stay, sir, unless you promise neither to preach nor admin- 
ister the ordinance of baptism.' I told him I had no special 



36 

objection to those conditions, provided I might be permitted 
to talk with my brethren on the subject of religion. ' Oh, 
well,' said he, ' you may talk as much as you choose. We, in 
Denmark, are a people that don't make a fuss about little 
things ! ' Thus ended the conference." To any one who can 
recall from memory the image of Dr. Neale, his regal physique, 
his expression in movement and manner of manly dignity, 
greatness of soul, keen insight, and a childlike guilelessness 
incapable of anything mean or dishonorable, it will be evident 
that in this contest he gained a victory, and actually prompted 
the civil authority, from mere shame, to concede liberty in the 
interest of true manliness. 

NEW PLANNINGS FOR THE FUTURE. 

The return of Dr. Neale was hailed with a true home- 
welcome, emphasized by the press generally. He had been 
physically renovated abroad, and now he was refreshed at 
home by the signs of sympathy and " a mind to work" 
prophetic of prosperity. For a series of years, to the tenth 
anniversary of his ministry in Boston, these signs were verified. 
In our retrospective view that first decade seems epochal. 
At its ending, soon afterward, the crisis in the history of the 
parochial fortunes announced itself, requiring of the leaders 
more direct attention to planning for the future. Already 



37 

family life was fast receding from the neighborhood, to create 
new homes in the direction of the Boston Highlands, and 
was so rapidly vacating its time-honored seats in the sanctuary, 
as to show that the old family heritages must be lost entirely, 
or that the church-home and the family-home, so long joined 
together, must be kept from drifting asunder. 

THE PAROCHIAL CRISIS. 

And yet to many others — the older class — the issue 
seemed hard to meet. They hoped that it would have been 
deferred during the little left of their lifetime! Of course, 
no one could be more concerned in the agitation of the 
question than Dr. Neale himself. He was young enough, in 
studying up the question of a new church-home as his work- 
ing-centre, to be thinking ahead at least a third of a century. 
With that idea as a guiding light he saw the necessity, in 
case the old parochial area that had taken North End within 
its limits were to be left far behind, of "crossing the Common," 
so as to attract all those elements of strength that had been 
drifting southward. This idea shaped his earlier plannings. 
It had been his hope that when he and the pilgrim band should 
leave the old church-homestead, to seek a habitation that might 
be left as a heritage, they would be led at once to their abiding 
rest upon the south-side plain ; but when he saw that the 



38 

elders of the host lingered upon the north-side hill, and 
prayed that they might tarry there, he recognized a divine 
overruling, " accepted the situation," and rose to the high 
plane of faith where Moses stood amid the disappointments 
of his pilgrimage — permitted to behold the end of Israel's 
journey, but denied the honor of direct and immediate 
leadership. 

Nevertheless, Dr. Neale's prophetic convictions were ver- 
ified by time, even before the close of the third decade of 
his ministry, and he lived to cross the south-side border with 
the people, in order to see accomplished, at last, what he would 
fain have welcomed first — the entrance of the old historic First 
Church upon that south-side field where "the generations to 
come" shall surely gather, shall take note of our own times 
as a transition period of the old past, and trace God's hand in 
every movement as we are wont to do in the leadings forth of 
Israel "by ways they had not known." 

FAREWELL SCENES BRIGHTENED. 

The time for the farewell service in the old edifice (on 
the corner of Hanover and Union Streets) came, as it seemed 
to the many aged, alas! too soon, — April, 1854, — while to the 
young it was a " hope long deferred." At that service the 
throng was great. Never did Dr. Neale appear more fitly in 



39 

place as an anointed leader of the people, counselling, strength- 
ening, cheering, inspiring all, young and old, alike. Akin in 
spirit and in work, there, at his side, was the loving sharer of 
his hopes, wiping away so aptly the tears of the aged and 
infirm, who feared they were too weak to ascend that hill on 
Somerset Street, whence the spire of their new church-home 
could be seen afar. Among her last services on earth was the 
diffusion of genial sunshine around those mothers and sisters 
who, living in the past, needed just then the touch of a helping 
hand, and that cheer of Christlike tone, " Fear not ! " 



THE DEDICATION FESTIVAL DARKENED. 

How darkly shaded was the contrast between the gleams 
of cheer from her sunny spirit, that illumined those farewell 
scenes, and the gloom that was cast over the dedication festival 
of the new edifice by the visitation of death that was announced, 
so unexpectedly, Tuesday, Jan. 2, 1855, and appropriated the 
set day of the festival as the day of her funeral. Saddening, 
indeed, was the sight of that bereaved group of five children 
— the two youngest, an only son of eight years and a little 
girl of six years of age — so suddenly left motherless. To the 
husband, so dependent, what a bewildering mystery ! It was a 
keen trial of character. He rose superior to depression, by 
the power of a loving faith, quickened by sympathy with the 



40 

spirit of the departed one, who had left the earth breathing 
benedictions like an angel called homeward, and yet still 
"hovering around." Could he droop in loneliness, or faint 
in weakness, while touched by so fresh a memory that made 
her still a living presence? 



SIGNIFICANCE OF THE DEDICATION-SERVICE. 

No. The dedicatory festival found Dr. Neale in a 
condition of bereavement very different indeed from what 
he had anticipated, but uplifted to a higher plane of Christian 
experience, and all alive to the calls and the significances of 
the occasion. Never, perhaps, did he appear more truly 
himself, at his best, than he did at the opening of 1855, in 
delivering the dedicatory discourse, selecting as his theme a 
central doctrine of Christianity, "The Priesthood of Christ," as 
set forth in the epistle to the Hebrews (Heb. x. 19-21); first 
of all comprehensively stating it, then treating it practically, 
tracing its influence upon the Church, the institutions of public 
worship, the Sabbath, the sanctuary, also the Christian min- 
istry, calling, moreover, for fidelity to this doctrine of Christ 
as a source of spiritual vitality and a life-power in the building 
up of character. Among the illustrations, the career of Dr. 
Chalmers figured impressively. This chosen subject of the 
first sermon delivered in the new edifice, was designed to sound 



4i 

the key-note of the evangelical religion that had been the life 
of the church and ministry through a stormy past — to hold forth 
the central truth expressed by the text as a banner-motto 
signalizing the meaning and aim of the mission yet to be 
fulfilled. 

INSPIRING INFLUENCE OF THE NEW POSITION. 

During the decade and a half that followed the entrance 
of the church into their new home upon the central height 
of the city, the course of events seemed, in a good degree, a 
progressive realization of their hopes, carrying into effect a 
wisely adjusted plan. The older members from the north 
and from the south were glad to meet each other proxi- 
mately half-way upon a spot that many could reach, by means 
of the car-routes, with comparative comfort and convenience. 
Dr. Neale was keenly alive to all the suggestions of his new 
position and its outlook. There was a fresh kindling of 
enthusiasm, and all that was genial, social or hopeful in his 
nature seemed to put itself forth far and widely with sponta- 
neous energy. More than ever were his services sought as a 
lecturer for lyceums, or kindred institutions, as an orator for 
commemorative occasions, or as a preacher of the simple 
gospel that had been the inspiration of his early youth. 
Above the gloom of his darkened home, so comparatively 
solitary, just then, he was uplifted by the work that he loved — 



42 

work that was worship, so worthy of the consecration of mind 
and heart. That sympathy with the spirit of Christian work 
was his interior life. The idea was clear to his own conscious- 
ness : the theme of his lecture in the Athenaeum course of 
1854, was, " Life : Natural Life, the Real as contrasted with the 
Artificial." Not long afterward — October, 1855 — we trace him 
in Chicago, where he delivered an address, that was put forth 
in pamphlet form, indicating " The Bearings and Tendencies 
of American Institutions upon Romanism amongst us." The 
tone of that address was defiant toward Romanism, emphasiz- 
ing the sentiment that ''the Papist in his hopes, as well as 
the Protestant in his fears, mistakes the genius of our Govern- 
ment and the character of our people altogether." 

SPIRIT OF THE DUDLEIAN LECTURE, HARVARD UNIVERSITY. 

This high-toned fearlessness, this supreme faith as to the 
issues of the contest with the Papal Power in America, sug- 
gested the selection of his theme for the Dudleian lecture 
delivered at Cambridge, in 1857, and shaped his peculiar treat- 
ment of it. That lectureship, founded by Paul Dudley, son 
of Gov. Joseph Dudley, for the pupose of setting forth, year 
by year, "The errors of the Church of Rome," had been well 
sustained, in accordance with the ideal of its founder, and 
was of itself, by its title and limitation, the recognition of 



43 

an antagonism adapted to awaken a fear that would usually 
seek relief by emphasizing points of weakness. Naturally, a 
lecturer accepting an appointment to such a specialty would 
be inclined thus to do. But then, as in this direction Dr. 
Neale knew no fear, he was prompted by his intellectual 
courage to "get out of old ruts" — to approach the formidable 
system more closely, to analyze it more minutely, and indicate 
the sources of its strength, the interior points where lay "the 
hiding of its power." So effectually was his aim achieved, 
that, when the Papal press complimented the perspicacity that 
made him "master of the situation," there were old friends 
who expressed a fear that he himself had been overawed, 
if not overmastered, and questioned whether there were in 
his nature aught of that aesthetic sympathy with the artistic 
attractions of the mediaeval worship that had drawn others, 
strong and weak alike, to seek the realization of their ideals 
before the Romish altar. Nevertheless, he could say with 
Roger Williams, " I know the rocky grounds of my strength." 
In reconnoitering and reporting the positions of an opponent, 
he not only felt himself bound to be truthful, but that he could 
afford to be generous and knightly as to the style and spirit 
of his treatment. 

The delivery of this lecture furnished Harvard University 
the occasion for honoring Dr. Neale with the degree of Doctor 
of Divinity. 



44 



TWENTY-FIFTH YEAR OF SETTLEMENT. 

Thus progressive in the spirit of manifold Christian work, 
Dr. Neale and the church signalized, in the year 1862, the 
twenty-fifth anniversary of his pastorate, by a special celebra- 
tion. The quarter of a century's record was read by Daniel P. 
Simpson, Esq.; honorable mention was made of former workers, 
as, for instance, of Michael Webb, Esq., who officiated as 
clerk at the time of the call and the inauguration ; and the day 
was observed in the spirit of a Thanksgiving festival. 



TWO HUNDREDTH ANNIVERSARY OF THE FOUNDING OF THE 
CHURCH. 

Not long afterward the thoughts of all were turned toward 
a great historical occasion then approaching ; namely, the 
second centennial anniversary of the founding, in 1665, of 
the First Baptist Church in Boston. Many of the fathers 
and mothers who had passed away, often expressed the wish 
that they might be permitted to see that day — to mingle with 
the audience that would be gathered as representative of the 
succeeding generation, and listen to the annals that would be 
rehearsed in their hearing. Those whose thoughts reached 
so far, appreciated Dr. Neale as a man for the time, gifted 
with a fine historic sense that would enjoy the opportunity to 



4 5 

collate and unify the facts of the marvelous story in sympathy 
with its spirit ; and, perhaps, as having been called into office, 
like Ezra, with a regard to this very purpose — the serving of 
the generations to come, by the testimonies of his recording 
pen. Had he believed himself specially commissioned for 
the task, he could not have devoted himself to it more lovingly 
or effectually. 

Indeed, we may fitly affirm that the accomplishment of 
this task was the fulfillment of a long-cherished hope, without 
the realization whereof he were not content to die. No aim 
just then could have engaged him more profoundly. What 
object of thought, to one so responsive to all that is grand or 
sublime in human history, could have taken a deeper hold upon 
his great nature than the fortunes of an humble band, pil- 
grims and strangers for conscience' sake among those who 
were already pilgrims and strangers upon this continent, yet 
among these as representatives of the New-Testament religion 
of the first century, putting forth no other creed or standard 
of faith, and thence charged with demoralizing laxness of doc- 
trine, standing "compact together" through the ages, despite 
all the abandonments around them of first loves and first 
beliefs, despite all the secularization of churches by making 
membership a birth-heritage, like the title to land, and thus 
marching along to the end of a second century in pristine 
unity, to sound out as fit tribute to the unifying Word and 



4 6 

Spirit, the song-testimony, at once old and new, " As it was in 
the beginning, is now, and ever shall be, world without end, 
Amen?" Alive to the significance of the testimony and the 
prophecy, Dr. Neale was ambitious of the honor of standing 
forth as their interpreter, recognizing it as his pride and joy 
to say to all "there gathered," "Of the distinctive truths that 
our fathers affirmed in the face of principalities and powers, 
and sealed with the blood of self-sacrifice, not one hath 
perished or been lost from our keeping unto this day." 



RETURN OF PEACE AND THE CHEERING OUTLOOK. 

The celebration of the two hundredth anniversary of the 
church was nearly coincident, chronologically, with the close 
of the war. Thus the relation of Dr. Neale's long pastorate 
to the era of peace, seems analagous to that of his great pred- 
ecessor, Dr. Stillman, at the end of the Revolutionary con- 
flict ; for, to both, the return of peace rendered the several 
succeeding years, of themselves, as comparatively a Thanks- 
giving festival, opening, through a clarified atmosphere, a hap- 
pier outlook and widening fields of manifold service. In all 
that pertained to his individuality, Dr. Neale fitly represented 
the motherly sentiment of the mother-church to the younger 
growths of the Commonwealth. They were, in a sense gen- 
ealogically, her offspring ; and we may truly say that the fine 



47 

physique and benign expression of her pastor, were welcomed 
as an apt type of the parental relation. He actualized that 
ideal; and whether we think of him as away from home, 
offering the dedicatory prayer of the Baptist church-edifice 
at Old Cambridge, as he did in 1870, or inaugurating the new 
ministry at the Bethel, in 1871, by preaching the sermon at 
the installation of Rev. Henry A. Cooke, or as at home, amid 
hosts of friends, from afar and near, celebrating the thirty-fifth 
anniversary of his settlement in 1872, or the thirty-seventh in 
1874, in speeches that were festal songs, we recognize the 
heart-beat of the boy of sixteen, whose spontaneous ministry 
of love announced itself, in 1824, at the edge of the baptismal 
stream in Southington, and six years ago, on the height of 
old Boston, completed its uninterrupted course of half a century 
in all the fullness of its strength, the same loving, free-giving 
soul, enlarging still, "the eye not dim nor its natural force 
abated." 

WELCOMED TO CALIFORNIA. 

At the time of this celebration, the Rev. Mr. Beckley, 
who had been recognized as associate minister since Septem- 
ber, 1 871, was absent in Europe. He returned in the autumn 
of 1874, and soon afterward the journals of California announed 
the arrival of Dr. Neale in San Francisco. The association 



4 8 

was in session at the time, and as his coming had been tele- 
graphed, a committee was appointed to receive him. It was 
an ovation indeed. On Thursday, Oct. 18th, he was welcomed, 
and announced to preach on Sunday. On the last day of the 
session, Oct. 16th, his address was characterized as "like a 
voice of inspiration, listened to with joy, while tears of tender- 
ness and gratitude moistened every eye." He left San 
Francisco in the middle of October to visit the big trees of 
Yosemite Valley, braving the difficulties of the way in com- 
pany "with young men, on horseback, despite the obstacles 
of snow ten feet deep," with all the energy, it was said, of a 
youth renewed "like the eagles.'' He was surprised and 
delighted to discover mountain scenery on our continent 
rivaling or surpassing the Alpine, as it appeared to him, 
although he had stood on Mount Rigi, both at sunrise and 
sunset, looking over the surrounding heights so beautifully 
reflected from the Lake of Lucerne. On his homeward jour- 
ney the whole nature of the man was overborne by the power 
of mountain scenery ; and so, stopping at Chicago, he preached 
at the University Place Church, his theme being announced 
as "Mount Sinai and Mount Zion," whereof it was reported 
that "his opening reference to the mountains of California, 
which he had just visited, was simply grand — and that word 
describes the whole effort." 



49 



ENTHUSIASM IN INTERPRETING CALIFORNIA S HISTORY. 

The return to Boston, Dec. 10, 1874, was signalized by 
a warm reception, that took its peculiar tone from the intel- 
lectual quickening produced by Dr. Neale's communications 
from California, addressed not only to the public, through the 
press, and to the church, but also to the Sunday-school, im- 
parting even to the children his own enthusiasm, enkindled 
by his enjoyment of nature and his feeling of the marvelous. 
It was in his case the overflow of brain-power, as well as heart- 
life ; for his public discourse of California, in his own pulpit, 
Dec. 6, 1874, another, soon afterward, before the Young Men's 
Christian Union, another still before the Providence Social 
Union, set forth not merely the national or political aspects 
of that young State, but also the significance of Californian 
history, and the mission of California as a factor in the world's 
civilization. 



SEMI-CENTENNIAL ANNIVERSARY AT NEWTON TYPICAL VETERAN. 

Six months after the return from California, Dr. Neale was 
reminded of the rapid flow of time by the advent of the semi- 
centennial anniversary of the Newton Theological Seminary, 
June, 1875, the occasion ranking him with the few early 
students of the first half decade invested with veteran dignity. 



5o 

As yet he had no feeling of age ; his sympathies with youth 
were keen ; he accepted the situation, and sustained it well, 
reveling in memories of the departed, replacing them at the 
festival by his vivid allusions, and pouring forth tributes of 
honor to teachers and co-workers who had ended their life- 
work, and left names that were powers for good. Far away 
myself, on the other side of the sea, it was a pleasure to 
read the description of the scene, to picture it in thought, 
with our friend in the foreground, a typal figure, meeting so 
fitly the call of that memorable hour. 



THE CENTENNIAL YEAR SIGNS OF DECLINE. 

The celebration of the semi-centennial anniversary at 
Newton, preceded by only a single year the centennial anni- 
versary of the National Republic ; a fact indicative of the rapid 
religious growth of New England, in keeping with the material 
advancement of the country. The celebration of the nation's 
Centennial over the broad Continent, from the Atlantic to the 
Pacific, was a great educational power, doing much in a little 
time toward unifying public sentiment throughout the millions 
of new homesteads in America, as well as enlightening the 
millions of the Old World as to the meaning and destination 
of ''The Union." To the thought of the time the great 



5i 

heart of Dr. Neale was joyfully responsive, and his voice often 
heard in interpreting it. It was just at this period, however, 
amid the general exultation, that signs of change were begin- 
ning to come over him ; not so much of advancing age, as of 
disturbing anxieties as to the issues of his own ministry. He 
saw approaching the crisis that he had hoped would not arrive 
in his d*ay — the inevitable removal of the church-home to a 
new position, required by the needs of the family-life that was 
still drifting southward, away from the old city-center. Fresh 
deliberations of the old question had already taken form in 
propositions that must be met, ere long, by acceptance or 
rejection ; and now how different, how doubtful appeared his 
relations to the church's future from what it was twenty-three 
years before, when he led the way from the northern side to 
the summit of the central height! 



SENSE OF LONELINESS. 

More than ever, now, in this latter period of unsettled 
deliberation, he experienced an oppressive sense of loneliness. 
Ever regarding himself as a child of Providence, he had felt 
himself specially guided, in the month of June, 1861, when he 
was united in marriage to Miss Ann Elizabeth Bacon (sister 
of Prof. John Bacon, of Harvard University) — a lady remark- 



52 

ably qualified to uplift, cheer and strengthen his heart by 
genial companionship, wise counseling and generous coopera- 
tion in every good work. His sudden bereavement of all this 
happiness, in June, 1S64, by the hand of death, was an extra- 
ordinary calamity ; and though amid the surroundings of the 
home where her spirit still seemed to hover, and, amid the 
constant calls to active service, his own spirit would "rally its 
energies anew, now, at last, stirred by new and doubtful ques- 
tionings coming before their time, his sense of loneliness was 
intense — a strange, depressing experience. Before the advent 
of the year 1877, it was telling its own story upon his manly 
physique in the subtle changes of tone, and his manner of 
expression ; so that in the first half of that year, after returning 
from a nearly two-years' sojourn abroad, I was supplying the 
vacant pulpit of Shawmut Avenue, and was in the way of often 
seeing him, the corrosions of new cares upon his weakening 
nervous system was to me a revelation as clear as it was 
unwelcome. 



AGREEMENT WITH THE CHURCH ON THE QUESTION OF REMOVAL. 

Nevertheless, it was equally clear, in view of Dr. Neale's 
strong, manly sense, that, to him, it was no matter of wonder 
to find the church pining for reunion with the young house- 



53 

holds of her own family, whose prosperity she had long beheld 
with motherly feelings. The hint of such a longing reached 
the Shawmut Avenue homestead ; the sentiment was recipro- 
cated, and was expressed in the overture, "Come, now, with 
us, and we will do you good ; for all thine was ours, and all ours 
is thine." With a wisdom and forecast like that of the 
patriarch Jacob, when he received the invitation from young 
Joseph, who gloried in Israel's historic name, and had become 
established in a "large and wealthy place," the ancestral 
church also took counsel, and said to all pertaining to the 
old settlement, " Come, now, let us tarry no longer in the house 
upon the hill ; let us go down to the south, and ' regard not 
our stuff,' for the good of the land is before us." In this 
conclusion the minister and people were united. And so, on 
the last Sabbath of May, the 27th day of the month, in the 
presence of all who constituted the union, it was Dr. Neale's 
special service to trace, in the last sermon delivered by him 
in the Somerset Street edifice, the course of the church 
through the period of its twenty-three years' life upon the 
hill, including within its scope the rise and progress of the 
younger household, on Shawmut Avenue ; where, on the third 
day of June, all being gathered for the first Sabbath service 
in the new church-home, it was my lot to follow Dr. Neale's 
exposition of the past, with a discourse suggestive of principles 
and aims pertaining to the future. 



5 4 



THE FINAL SETTLEMENT — A WELCOME RELIEF FROM CARE. 

The deliverance from a state of mental suspense, by the 
determination of long-pending questions, and the increased 
securities for the transmission of the church's name and place 
as a heritage of the future, were a great relief to Dr. Neale. 
In order to assure to both factors in the union freedom, 
with energy of action, he had presented his resignation of 
the pastoral care. His trust that he would be cared for was 
simple and childlike ; the experience of the changes them- 
selves brought to him a sadness that was shared by all the 
pilgrim band. He was cared for. Possessed already of a 
permanent home for life, with the acceptance of his resignation 
ample provision was made for his comfort ; and his relation 
to the church, recognized by them, as well as by his friend 
and successor in the pastoral office, Rev. C. B. Crane, D.D., 
was that of the honored pastor still, modified by the course 
of events as to its letter and form, yet in reality the same as 
to essence and spirit. With the determination of all the 
practical questions bearing upon the future, a sense of freedom 
imparted a buoyancy of feeling that qualified him, more fully 
than had been his wont, for a season, to enjoy society and 
occasional work, both at home and abroad. 



55 



THE LAST SERMON. 



The sermon that terminated his long career as the 
preacher, the last that was heard from his lips, was preached 
in the Baptist Church of Wollaston Heights, on Sunday 
morning, Feb. 16, 1879, when he kindly cooperated with me 
in obtaining aid for the Southern Baptist Mission in Rome, 
by occupying my place while I was speaking for the common 
cause in another pulpit. By request, he delivered a discourse 
upon a favorite subject, the text being taken from Paul's 
second Epistle to Timothy (ii. 9), "The Word of God is not 
bound." It was said that he evidently enjoyed the service, 
and spoke with his usual ease and force. 

On taking leave of his friends, to return to Boston, he 
lingered a little, as he looked forth from the Heights, to speak 
of the beauty of the landscape ; and addressing himself to 
Mr. Howard Gannett, a deacon of the church, he said : " Please 
say to my young friend, your pastor, that I shall be looking 
for him to get through his work here, and to start again in 
time for me to have a chance to become his successor, once 
more, and so take my turn in enjoying this magnificent Eden 
before I leave for the better land." While surveying thus those 
surroundings of sea and land, the bay and the city, his intense 
love of nature broke forth in tones of childlike exhilaration. It 
may be safely said that during no following day of his life on 



56 

earth was there noticed the expression of so much concentrated 
enjoyment, physical, social and spiritual, as upon that memorable 
Sabbath at Wollaston Heights. 

Associated with this remembrance of Dr. Neale's last 
sermon, is the record of his last visit to Newton, where the 
last words of public speech that fell from his lips were 
addressed to the students of the Theological Seminary. 

These signs of reviving spirits were delightful to us all ; 
yet, ever and anon, forebodings of declining strength would 
assert themselves. 

It was in February, 1879, that his friends in New York 
gained his consent to favor them with a visit of several weeks, 
and during the greater part of that time he was, as they said, 
"all himself." Thus it seemed, indeed, after his return to 
Boston, where, in the month of June, he had attained such 
a degree of strength as encouraged his undertaking, in com- 
pany with his brother, Mr. Alonzo Neale, a journey westward 
as far as Illinois. Nevertheless, after a few days' delay in 
Connecticut, he became quite sure that his strength was inade- 
quate to the fulfillment of the programme, and he returned to 
Boston, where, during the remainder of the summer and the 
first few days of autumn, despite prevailing weakness, his 
occasional walks and the greetings of friends were so quickly 
reviving to his spirits as to awaken hopes of restoration to 
a good degree of health. 



57 

These alternations of fear and hope were continuous, as 
we have intimated, even to the last week of his earthly exist- 
ence. Then constant decrease of strength disqualified him 
for any kind of vocal expression, except brief responses of 
friendly recognition or thankfulness for kind attentions. His 
spirit, in union with Christ, was already "at home" in the 
heavenly state; and on the 18th of September, the faint, final 
respiration indicated that he was " absent from the body and 
present with the Lord." 

III. And now, having traced in outline, from its begin- 
ning to its earthly end, a completed life-course, let us consider 
for a few moments the character it has set forth as a living 
individuality " known and read of all men." 



PARTIAL CHARACTERIZATION. 

In taking a retrospective survey of an object so many- 
sided as a protracted public career, we naturally attempt to 
summarize our view of its qualities in some brief expression 
that tells the whole story of an inner life, in a word or two. 
Thus, of old, a distinguished officer of "The Restoration" was 
characterized by Nehemiah as " a faithful man, and one that 
feared God above many ; " and so of Daniel, it was said by his 



58 

sovereign, "An excellent spirit was in him ;" while in an earlier 
age, the practical leaders of an administration were noted as 
those who "understood the times and the things that ought to 
be done." Thus, too, at the time of his departure, Dr. Neale 
was designated, both by pulpit and press, " The Apostle of 
Charity ; " a tribute of honor well deserved, generally appre- 
ciated, yet far from adequate to bear the responsibility of 
standing by itself as an exponent of the man. For, thus 
emphasized, it is likely to mislead by the expression of a half- 
truth, suggesting the predominance of the emotional nature 
over the intellectual to a degree of extreme sentimentalism that 
was not verified by the facts of life comprehended as a unity. 



MENTAL BALANCE. 

That character was, indeed, a vital unity, a continuous 
outgrowth from its earliest apparent germs, taking on less that 
was exceptional or excrescent in its development than usually 
betrays itself in the experience of active minds. The old 
saying, "The boy is the father of the man," asserts itself in 
this case ; for, just as clearly as one may see that all that was 
most eminently distinctive in the first judge of Israel pertained 
to the boy Samuel, so surely may we discern the combination 
of all the elements of individuality that make the half century 



5 9 

of Dr. Neale's ministry memorable, asserting itself in the boy 
of sixteen ; who, alone, simply responsive to the Divine Word, 
rose superior to the prevailing sentiment of the surrounding 
community, confronting it with such testimonies touching the 
significance of his "baptismal oath of loyalty," publicly taken, 
as proved the subordination of the emotional, the sentimental 
and the aesthetical in his nature to intellect and conscience, 
"under law to Christ," recognizing his supreme authority. 
Broadly sympathetic though he was as a man, and as a Chris- 
tian man with a world-wide humanity, what he knew as 
religion was a revelation of divine ideas transcending nature ; 
and the chief factor in realizing its mission upon earth was 
"the Word of Truth," apprehended by the mind, affirmed by 
the conscience, and "enlarging the heart" by the free play 
of those affections which the apostle Paul has personified as 
charity, or love, and described as "rejoicing not in iniquity, 
but rejoicing in the truth, as bearing all things, believing all 
things, hoping all things." When this characterization, a true 
heart-song, was read at the first to the church at Corinth, it 
might have seemed to some that Christianity, as an experience, 
was regarded by Paul as mainly a play of sentiment. Such a 
judgment, however, would have been quickly overruled, and 
that just balancing of forces, that harmony of the intellectual, 
moral, and emotional elements so essential to leadership and 
reliable character, would have been affirmed with unanimity. 



6o 



DR. NEALE S IDEAL A CLEAR CONCEPTION. 

From the very outset of his ministerial life, this Pauline 
type of Christian charity, or, rather, of vital Christianity itself, 
was not only exemplified in Dr. Neale's habitudes of thinking 
and acting, but was emphasized by him with eloquent fidelity. 
In the year 1833 he visited Southington, his native town, 
to preach a sermon occasioned by the dedication of a new 
house of worship for the Baptist Church, the result of a series 
of efforts that could be traced directly to the influence of his 
own young ministry as the starting-point. The selection of 
the theme was significant ; the title of the pamphlet sermon 
tells a story of character — " The Advantages of Difficulties? 
The text was Paul's statement of his own difficulties (Philip- 
pians i. 15-28), and his joy in the issues. The preacher did 
not compliment the little church — rather complained of their 
slowness ; but he encouraged them greatly by glorifying the 
principles whereof they were the exponents. He congrat- 
ulated them upon the dying out of many unreasonable preju- 
dices pertaining to the olden time, and in doing so sounded 
the key-note of his own heart-song or inner life-thought as 
to charity, thus : " It is a well-known fact that it was once 
considered disreputable, and almost a sin, to attend the Baptist 
meeting. I well recollect that when I was a school-boy in 
this town, if any one of the boys got angry with me, and wished 



6i 

to express more resentment than usual, after exhausting all 
other terms of reproach he would call me a Baptist. This, 
too, was the surest way to subdue me. I really felt that it 
was a reproach. I advert to this fact as being an illustration 
of a state of things which you all know long existed. These 
were indeed trying, very trying times. There may be men 
who are regardless of the good opinion of those around them, 
and care not whether they are respected or disrespected in 
society. But there are others who feel differently. To men 
of sensitive minds, to men who respect themselves, I know 
of nothing more painful than undeserved reproach. But, my 
brethren, difficulties of this kind have their advantages. They 
should teach us to be careful against imbibing a prejudice 
against other denominations. While we remain upon the 
earth, we shall often meet with men, good and wise men, who, 
in some of their religious opinions, differ from us. But we 
should remember that we differ as widely from them ; and if 
we are unwilling that they, on this account, should treat us 
with disrespect and unkind feeling, we shall learn not to treat 
them so." 

There you have the revelation of a painful experience in 
days of youth, and thence the outgrowth of a habitude of 
cautious self-restraint in speech that gave tone to his style of 
thought, manner, and expression for a life-time. 



62 



AN EXPLANATION. 



This review of our brother's life-course, as a whole, com- 
mends itself to the attention of not a few who have interpreted 
him by what was merely incidental or episodical, and have 
thus attributed to him, at times, a sort of negative goodness 
lacking positive convictions. As illustrative of this statement, 
it may not be amiss to recur to judgments called forth by 
a particular tribute to his memory — a hearty eulogy from the 
pulpit of an eminent Unitarian clergyman, a friend and neigh- 
bor, who characterized Dr. Neale on the Sabbath following his 
decease as " The Apostle of Charity," and, in that connection, 
awakening pleasant memories, alluded to the cheerful tone 
of his greeting and his talk on a certain morning when they 
met, and when, responsive to some turn of the conversation, 
he said, " I, too, am a Unitarian." That fragmentary utter- 
ance has been quoted seriously as an indication of "a weakness 
for charity,'' disposing one always, for the sake of union, to 
ignore clear ideas, or concede great principles, in the presence 
of all questioners, even though representatives of a mere 
nature-religion or liberal sentimentalism. It has been said : 
" If he spoke in that manner seriously, he spoke inconsistently 
with his official position ; if not seriously, it was trifling with 
sacred truths committed to his keeping." Far from it, O 
friend ; the case is not so conditioned. There is here no 



dilemma. Conversational power takes wide scope for itself, 
and the instincts of genius will often emphasize the original 
or latent sense of words for effects of its own. In interpre- 
tation, the modifying power of the connection is manifold. 
Jesus himself had occasion for the appeal on his own behalf 
— "Judge not according to appearance, but judge righteous 
judgment." So have we, too, had such occasion for ourselves 
in connections similar to the one before us ; for, strictly speak- 
ing, every sound-minded Trinitarian enjoys the right to affirm 
and reaffirm his hold upon the doctrine of the Divine Unity, 
and to put himself before others in his true or scriptural 
position by saying, as I have also said, and would say yet 
again, in kindred presence, despite sect-usage, " Gentlemen, 
I, too, am a Unitarian!" 



SPEAKING FOR HIMSELF. 

But then, the intimation that "a weakness, for charity," in 
the experience of Dr. Neale, ever issued in the concealment 
or ignoring of doctrines that he professed to believe, may be 
fairly met by a kind of testimony that reveals the ruling spirit 
within, and shows that his manly nature, elevated by grace, 
was incapable of it. More than that, his rebuke of such a 
tendency is sharp as a two-edged sword. Hear him in words 
addressed to the church of his native town at the dedication 
of their new house of worship: — 



6 4 

"To be respectful and kind to others, however, it is not 
necessary that we should adhere less strictly to what we esteem 
Scripture truth. Valuable as is Christian courtesy, truth is 
still more valuable. We have no fellowship with men who, 
in order to raise their individual popularity with other denom- 
inations, shrink from an honest avowal of their real sentiments. 
This policy is no evidence of Christian charity, nor of liberal, 
manly feeling. It is fawning sycophancy. It is a shameful 
compromise of principle for the sake of peace — a denial of their 
Master for fear of crucifixion. And, after all, what do they 
gain by it ? They may for a time meet with smiles and 
caresses ; but the thinking part of every denomination will 
secretly despise them. It is our duty always to be charitable, 
but we should avoid hypocrisy. The mantle of Christian 
charity is indeed a broad covering, and we should be willing 
to stretch it to the utmost, that it may 'hide a multitude of 
sins ; ' but there are some sins that tear through the mantle 
and outgrow the covering, for which we should have no 
charity whatever. In order to preserve peace and union, we 
should be willing to sacrifice everything but the truth. We 
should agree with our Christian brethren as far as we can; 
and wherein we cannot, why, we should agree to differ. 
Let us consider all who love our Lord Jesus Christ as friends 
and brethren, and treat them accordingly." 

Thus, with all authority, spake this "Apostle of Charity" 



65 



to those who had known his manner of life from his youth up, 
in words that revealed the inner life of one whose intellect 
and heart, whose judgment and feeling were poised with a 
balance so nearly even, and in a harmony so true, as to qualify 
him for the honor of conceded leadership, and the popular 
heart-trust that delights in self-surrender to sturdy, reliable 
character. 

KEEN AND BOLD IN JUDGING. 

In this connection of thought we are led to observe, too, 
how large-souled, generous and keenly discriminating was his 
appreciation of those who were separated from him by social 
position, or antagonism of nature, or by denominational lines. 
How profoundly did he prize the benedictions of the poor, and 
how ambitious was he to be, in God's sight, " great among 
them " by great services ! He was as proud and happy in the 
thought of having led Leonard A. Grimes into the kingdom 
of Christ, as he could have been if that leader among the freed- 
men, born a slave, had been an imperial prince of Europe ; 
and eloquent tributes to that man's memory at the time of his 
death, showed how highly Dr. Neale regarded him as a prince 
in the Messiah's kingdom. 

Noteworthy, too, as an index of character, was Dr. Neale's 
loving estimate of Rev. Dr. Nathaniel Colver's life-work, 



66 

uttered with an intense energy of expression on hearing of 
that strong man's decease at Chicago, where he had found 
his field of work in the Theological Seminary, after resigning 
his pastorate at Tremont Temple. His work in Boston was 
carried forward as a part of those anti-slavery conflicts that 
were preparing the way for emancipation and the Union. For 
the stormy controversies of that time, he was, by temperament, 
especially adapted — as much at home amid the tempest at its 
height, as the stormy petrel of the Atlantic. His mightily 
aggressive nature asserted itself to the last; and while on 
the bed of death he said that he desired to live a little longer, 
that he might strike one more blow at the ten-horned power 
enthroned on the banks of the Tiber. How impatient he was, 
sometimes, with Dr. Neale as not being always with him, armed 
and equipped, along his own chosen lines of battle ! Yet 
beneath that severe exterior, Dr. Neale ever discovered the 
loving, Christly spirit ready for self-sacrifice at the shrine of 
truth, and boldly affirmed, in a commemorative address, that 
in true charity, Nathaniel Colver abounded as really as did 
Dr. Sharp, in whom that grace was so eminent. In the long 
look backward, that saying is seen to be just, although once 
contrary to all seeming ; and its utterance indicated keen 
insight, fidelity to truth, and appreciation of underlying reality- 
in the estimate of character. 



6; 



ZEST FOR STUDY OF CHARACTER. 

Thus, too, far beyond the bounds of his own denomination, 
the keenly sensitive and inquisitive nature of Dr. Neale im- 
pelled him to extend his knowledge of human life by means of 
friendly relationship that would save him from being blinded 
by prejudice in judging men or opinions, and qualify him to 
cooperate with others for great, common ends. And in doing 
so he but grandly illustrated, with an emphasis of manner all 
his own, the spirit that had animated the ministry of the church 
that he served, during the whole period of its two centuries' 
history, especially illuminating, in comparison with colonial 
days, the forty years of Dr. Stillman's career. In this direc- 
tion, surely, he was highly gifted ; his strongly marked indi- 
viduality was ever asserting itself, not merely by natural 
impulses to read or study human character in the actualities 
of life, but also to win from others a reciprocal appreciation 
of the sentiments that ruled his course of action as a man and 
a Christian. He craved human love. Having nothing to 
conceal, he looked for candor and frankness in others, and was 
made profoundly happy by the recognition of anything, little 
or much, to love and honor in those who most widely differed 
from him. This happiness was intensified by his self-respect 
as a Christian minister ; for while he was at home with the 
humblest, he never envied the highest, knowing well that as 
to official position, there were none on earth above him. 



68 



COSMOPOLITAN SPIRIT. 



In the best sense of the phrase, therefore, Dr. Neale 
"magnified his office." On the day of his Graduation he 
spoke of its "dignity," and the feeling of it was a life-power, 
from first to last. Void of all ambition for any kind of 
promotion to a loftier position, he moved among the people 
of the church and the world with an ease and freedom that 
was truly cosmopolitan. And so, we may say, this honest 
pride of place became an element of character that revealed 
itself, as occasions required, not only in words of personally 
friendly counseling, but in "burning words" of remonstrance 
or appeal to the leaders of the people, politicians or statesmen, 
who were quick to recognize the supreme authority which, 
— as Guizot said, touching the communications of young 
George Washington to the government of England — always 
invests the simple truth called for by the necessities of the 
time, and inspired by the sense of duty. 

HIS HISTORIC SENSE. 

This cosmopolitan habitude of mind was greatly strength- 
ened by a natural endowment, namely, the historic sense, 
cultivated from his early years ; a gift in regard to which an 
English author has said that the Americans, as a people, are 
notably deficient. This is a true witness, as the writers of 



6 9 

town-histories know to their sorrow, when they have attempted 
to gather materials for their work. In Dr. Neale, however, 
this keenly appreciative historic sense grew with his growth, 
as an element of character and a source of power ; so that he 
loved, honored and faithfully kept himself "to the dear old 
First Church," not only as a people who had won his affections, 
or were lovable in themselves, but as a historic unity, repre- 
senting a grand idea and a glorious past. Hence his enthu- 
siasm of commemoration, the spirit of life that glows in his 
written memorials. How he loved to tell the story of our 
fathers and mothers; to pay his tribute of homage to their 
strength, and his tribute of humorous sympathy to their weak- 
nesses ; to trace the every-day steps of their life-path ; and 
especially to picture Dr. Stillman, with his deacons and his 
sexton, as if they had been contemporaries, rendering him still 
a living presence ! And thus, while his love to his own was 
quickened by historic memories, so was his interest in others 
around him, as individuals, families, or living organisms, repre- 
sentative of ideas. 

In this connection we may fittingly say that it was this 
habitude of thought, the growth of nature and education, that 
qualified him so weM for the position to which he was called, 
in 1852, as preacher of the sermon usually delivered before the 
governor and council and the legislature of Massachusetts, at 
the annual election ; for it was this historic sense that, as an 



7o 

instinct of genius, indicating what the meaning of that occasion 
was to him, determined the choice of his subject; namely, 
" Religious Liberty; its Bearing upon our National Prosperity," 
setting forth its hard life-battles, its victories, and the vindi- 
cation of its claims by the facts that tell the story of this 
nation's experience. It was a calm and adequate declaration 
of those very principles for which Roger Williams was doomed 
to banishment in colonial days, of which this First Church of 
Boston had been, amid fiery trials, the faithful witness — prin- 
ciples that were not formally and fully accepted by the State 
of Massachusetts until 1834, three years before the beginning 
of Dr. Neale's pastorate in Boston. So, at last, this discourse, 
this good profession of faith, religious and political, accepted 
by the civil government of Massachusetts, ordered to be 
printed and sent forth in pamphlet form, signalizes historically, 
as to documentary significance, the end of the long con- 
troversy, the beginning of a new political dispensation indi- 
cating the play of moral forces destined to shape the course 
of history and " make all things new." 



LOGICAL CATHOLICITY. 

And here we cannot but observe, throughout the whole 
extent of our retrospective survey of a life-course, with what 
directness the catholicity of Dr. Neale proceeded, not only 



7i 

impulsively, from the depths of his emotive nature, but, we may 
say, logically, from central principles that ruled his thinking 
and feeling at the beginning of his career. He emphasized 
the doctrine of religious liberty, not as a philosophy, merely, 
but as primarily an essential Christian doctrine, a vital element 
of the Divine Teacher's gospel. The natural tendency of such 
a doctrine, when heartily accepted, is the cultivation of kindly 
feeling toward those who differ from us, and a desire to 
apprehend them truthfully. This tendency he exemplified. 
He would not only know those who represented ideas differ- 
ing from his own by means of books, but by a free interchang- 
ing of thoughts. It was a real delight to him to step over 
denominational lines, and find scope for the play of his sympa- 
thies by conversing with, or by addressing, those outside of 
his ordinary beat. Thus indicating how much they had in 
common, he would, by "the light of his countenance," dispel 
malarious mists of prejudice, lift all to a higher plane, aid 
all to master themselves, and recognize the supremacy of 
absolute truth.* 

*The love-power in Dr. Neale never failed, and won sympathy, despite all antagonisms of taste, 
temperament or opinion. Mr. Hardy, of Boston, having requested Dr. Neale to sit for his photo- 
graph, was gratified with his compliance; and then expressed a wish to avail himself of Dr. Neale's 
kindness to obtain the like favor from Mr. William Lloyd Garrison, by means of a letter of introduc- 
tion. The Doctor promised to give the desired letter, but advised the artist to wait a few days. 
Meanwhile, being aware of Mr. Garrison's unwillingness to yield to the proposal of the photogra- 
phist to "take his likeness," Dr. Neale undertook to win his assent. To this end he wrote him a 
friendly note. He began by referring to a recent festival of Mr. Garrison's friends at Young's Hotel, 



72 



A world-wide catholicity of spirit, such as is here noted, 
is so often associated in thought with a certain dimness of 
vision as to the subtler moral elements of individuality that 
lie beneath the surface, and constitute the particular differences 
distinguishing one from another, that justice requires us to 
speak of Dr. Neale, in his intercourse with the world, as 
gifted with a keen, quick insight into the very core of char- 
acter. It was so much his wont to say the best that he could 
of all, ignoring their faults, that it is not strange that some 
should find occasion to say of him that he was like a man 
u born color-blind," and incapable of exact discrimination. 
But then, on the other hand, we must remember that men of 
strong antipathies and aggressive selfishness were incapable 
of judging him. He was not a " good hater," as some pride 
themselves in being ; neither was his Divine Master, of whom 
it was written, " He knew what was in man." But whenso- 
ever occasion called him, in the way of duty, to deal with any 

and emphasized the heartiness with which he joined with them all in the appreciation of the great 
Liberator's life-work; then, tenderly recognizing him as a life-long friend and neighbor who, like 
himself, had not much margin of time left for lingering amid these cherished associations, said, in 
regard to Mr. Hardy's proposal: "If, now, the people among whom we have dwelt so long wish to 
retain the mevzory of our Jiomely faces, pray let them do so, and let us aid them as far as we can." 
Mr. Garrison replied : " Dear Dr. Neale, let it be as you say. If the people wish to keep in memory 
our homely faces, let them have their own way." Mr. Hardy acted upon that hint, his work 
was accomplished, and we have the memorial picture. 



73 

human being face to face for the soul's personal good, we 
may be quite sure, ere long, that soul would have an expe- 
rience like that of the woman of Samaria in the presence of 
Jesus, and be saying in thought, if not openly, He knows 
about " all the things that ever I did." To those who knew 
him most thoroughly, all this was the most apparent ; as 
Dr. Lorimer has fitly said, " No honest man had occasion 
to fear him, and no unjust person could feel quite easy in 
his presence." 

SPIRIT OF FORGIVENESS. 

This faculty of insight must be kept in view if we would 
apprehend the moral greatness of his forgiving spirit. In its 
expression, the Christian temper was at times most touchingly 
realized ; for it seemed as if the greater the wrong the more 
readily was it forgiven, thus exemplifying the Psalmist's ideal 
of what was Godlike, when he exclaimed, "Pardon mine iniq- 
uity, for it is great ! " It was said of Fenelon, — as, indeed, it 
has been said of more than one, — that a sure way of calling 
forth his personal friendship, was to do him an injury. Akin 
to this was the forgiving spirit of Dr. Neale, originating, not 
in a proud insensibility to the wrong, but in the Christly love 
that sorrows for the offender, and waits to bless. He preached 
forgiveness, and practiced what he preached. Thus he walked 
through this world, despite dark times, having God's sunshine 



74 

within, essentially a happy man, able ever to say the whole of 
the Lord's Prayer with a joyous spirit, assured when he prayed, 
" Forgive us our trespasses as we forgive those who trespass 
against us/' that instead of condemning himself, he had within 
him the spirit-witness of Christ revealed, by whom he was 
made "heir of all things." Thus his Christian life on earth 
was ended, as it began, in the simplicity of a positive, child- 
like faith ; and he crossed the border-line that separates the 
earthly from the heavenly domain of the divine kingdom 
almost insensibly, as one already naturalized to the climate, 
the scenery and the society of the redeemed soul's true home 
in the Paradise of God. 



APPENDIX. 



Dr. Neale, ever sensitive to the moral judgments of his friends 
and of society, was well aware of his liability, in one line of direction, 
to be misjudged. In a brief letter addressed to Stillman Blan chard, 
Esq., of Boston, Oct. 2, 1874, we find the following illustration. * * * 
"I am about leaving home on a long journey West, perhaps as far 
as California, and I have a feeling of melancholy at the thought of 
leaving endeared friends, among whom your pleasant face is ever 
prominent. I gratefully appreciate your esteem and friendship, and 
I hope I may never be unworthy of them. You have spoken approv- 
ingly of my spirit of Christian courtesy shown toward persons of 
different classes and denominations. I do this, I am sure, not 
selfishly, to conciliate favors, but partly because it is natural, and 
because I believe it is m accordance with the spirit and teachings 
of Christ, and because I honestly think there is something good in 
everybody that ought to be kindly recognized." 

Dr. Neale's memories of old friends were tenderly cherished, and 
imperishable. The following note, to the daughter of Rev. Phineas 
Stowe, exemplifies this statement: — 



7 6 

"14 Somerset St., Boston, April 12, 1878. 

" My Dear Minnie: — 

"This, I understand, is your eighteenth birthday. It would be 
but a cold expression of my feeling to tender you the usual compli- 
ments of the occasion, saying, 'I congratulate you, and wish you 
many returns of the anniversary,' etc., etc. No ! the memories it 
recalls are too sacred to be passed by thus lightly. You are the 
loved and only surviving child of one of the dearest friends of my 
early and mature years. I have been recognized for years by your 
father and mother, and by your — not second father, but one who 
has nobly fulfilled, in tender love and unfaltering care, the place 
of the first — have been recognized by these as their friend and yours. 
For so I am. I never see you without thinking of all these things. 
I shall always feel a parental and Christian interest in your welfare, 
temporal and spiritual, for their sakes as well as your own. God 
bless you, my child, and spare your life yet many years to be, as 
you have been in the past, a blessing and a joy to your many 
friends. 

Yours ever, 

R. H. NEALE." 



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